Judge releases Sea-Watch captain who docked migrant ship against Italy's wishes

The sea captain who rammed a German aid group's rescue ship into an Italian police boat while trying to bring 40 migrants ashore should be freed from house arrest, a judge in Sicily has ruled.

Police arrested Carola Rackete, 31, before dawn on Saturday after she steered the ship to a dock at Italy's tiny Lampedusa island without authorisation to enter the port and in defiance of the country's anti-migrant interior minister.

Italian state TV said Judge Alessandra Vella concluded that Rackete was "doing her duty saving lives."

Non-profit group Sea-Watch tweeted "Our #Carola is free" after the state broadcaster reported the ruling.

Rackete has become a cause-celebre in much of Germany and Italy, especially among those who oppose the populist Italian government's crackdown on private rescue boats that ply the Mediterranean to pull migrants from unseaworthy vessels launched by smugglers from Libya.

An Italian Coast Guard boat patrols next to the Sea-Watch 3 vessel, in the Mediterranean Sea just off the coasts of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa before the ship docked.

But she has also become the object of Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's wrath for her defiance. Salvini has repeatedly said he would have her expelled from Italy.

"Ignoring the law and ramming a motorboat of border police officers aren't enough motives to go to jail," Salvini tweeted sarcastically.

Speaking live via Facebook, Salvini said the decision "goes against Italy and the law." Italians are "good, yes, fools, no," he said.

Any expulsion would require judicial procedures that could take time. Also, Agrigento prosecutors want to interrogate Rackete on July 9 in a related probe of allegedly abetting illegal immigration.

Migrants rest on board the Sea-Watch 3 vessel at sea in the Mediterranean before the ship's arrival in Lampedusa.

Rackete's lawyer was not immediately available for details, and the Agrigento courthouse was closed on Tuesday night.

Agrigento Prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio said the judge's denial of his request to keep the captain under house arrest reflected "strong political tensions", the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Earlier in the day, Sea-Watch said the captain acted in accordance with international law when she forced her way into port in Lampedusa with the rescued migrants on board.

In Germany, Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer said Rackete had announced her plans to dock after declaring an emergency 60 hours earlier and compared the situation to a police vehicle preventing an ambulance from reaching a hospital.

Supporters in Italy and Germany have pledged more than €1.3 million ($3.1 million) for Sea-Watch in recent days.